Friday, September 02, 2016

Black History Film: Freedom Riders

Have
you ever gone into McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC or indeed,
any fast food place to buy and eat a meal? I am sure at some point
we have all patronised some such establishment, or a café
or diner.

Have
you ever reflected on the fact that there was a time we were not
allowed to enter such places?

The
documentary Freedom Riders
covers a period in 1961 when people – both Black and white –
challenged the laws and customs that forbade Black and white people
from mixing or co-mingling. The film contains archive footage as
well as interviews with some of the original Freedom Riders.

Freedom
Riders,
a hard-hitting documentary, depicts when members of CORE – the
Commission on Racial Equality – embarked on a journey to test a
recent ruling by the Supreme Court which had declared segragation on
interstate buses to be unconstitutional. They set out to test
whether Federal law was being enforced.

The
journey began in Washington, D.C. The Freedom Riders boarded buses
to Atlanta, GA, where they met with Martin Luther King. They were
excited to meet with him and hoped he would join them. But he
cautioned them not to continue their quest, and to use methods that
were less confrontational.

At
this point, I admit to being confused. While applauding their
courage, I do not understand why these young people chose to put
themselves in extreme danger rather than finding another, less
violent way to address the issue.

The
Freedom Riders continued on their way, heading towards Birmingham,
AL. One group rode a Greyhound bus (coach), the other used
Trailways. The Greyhound never made it to its destination - it was
firebombed by a racist mob. The Trailways bus arrived in Birmingham
to be greeted by another racist mob. Bull Connor, Birmingham's Chief
of Police, had made a deal with the Ku Klux Klan to allow the mob to
assault the Freedom Riders for 15 minutes before the police arrived.

Because
they were confronted by such extreme force, the Freedom Riders
resolved to continue on their journey. They refused to be
intimidated into giving up. This much I do understand and, again,
applaud.

The
Freedom Riders were then joined by fresh troops from Fisk University
in Nashville, TN. Each had signed his or her last will and testament
before joining the Freedom Rides. As time went on, more and more
people joined them.

The
film documents the dirty deals that were done, such as the one in
Birmingham I mentioned above. At one point, the riders were holed up
in the First Baptist Church with MLK, who was on the phone to the
then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. The Kennedies had not taken
much notice of the need to enforce Federal law forbidding segregation
up until then, and as Julian Bond says, civil rights were “an
afterthought” to them. But MLK insisted they take action, and the
Freedom Riders captured their attention and that of the nation. The
leaders got behind the Freedom Riders and their efforts were reported
internationally, shaming America and the values our nation was meant
to represent.

The
actions of the Freedom Riders, and the support of MLK and other
prominent leaders such as the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, led to the
Riders securing a high level of protection for part of their journey.
This demonstrated that the State and Federal governments could have
afforded them that protection from the start. This takes me back to
my original question. Why did the Riders not insist on getting government
protection before they started out? Or why diid they not use less
violent strategies?

Unfortunately,
the story did not end there. The Riders suffered more brutal racist
violence. In Jackson, Miss, they were sentenced to hard labour at
the notorious Parchman State Prison. Again, this was intended to
discourage them but had the opposite effect. The prison became one
of the stops on the Freedom Rides and over 300 of the riders served
time there – under a law that had been declared unconstitutional.

I
have to admire the Riders' ingenuity. Nothing and no one was going
to stop them. They turned every adversity into an advantage. They
even composed a song about the Parchman prison.

The Freedom Riders' quest was a foolhardy one – in terms of the methods they used - and
led to a great deal of suffering which, to my mind, was preventable.
However, the courage and determination of these young people spurred
the Federal Government to take action and, in the end, led President
Kennedy to call for an end to all segregation.

The
film draws some very uplifting and inspiring conclusions. People
from all over the United States, from different races and religions,
and different backgrounds, came together and put their lives on the
line to put an end to racial injustice.

1 comment:

Nubiagirl
said...

Thank you for your thoughtful blog, Zhana. I have seen this film, and recall those days of terror. I think that the Freedom Riders went ahead with their plans in spite of the danger because: 1) they were very young and determined to confront racism immediately; they may have thought that MLK's ideology of peaceful demonstration was too passive, and 2) they may not have realized how dangerous confronting white racists could be.

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These blogs promote the healing of the planet and focus on the healing and upliftment of African people and, everything that contributes to this - books, films, Black history, Black health, Black business and more.
Zhana is a modern griot, writer, publisher and Transformational Growth Consultant. Author of Black Success Stories and Success Strategies for Black People, as well as The Key to Everything and What They Don't Want Us to Know. Editor of the More Black Success ebooks.
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